Erris Edgerly v. City and County of San Francis

This appeal requires us to decide when a person arrested for an infraction may be taken into custody under California law. California Penal Code § 853.5 provides three narrow grounds for the nonrelease of a person arrested for an infraction. California Penal Code § 853.6(i) provides 10 broader grounds for the nonrelease of a person arrested for a misdemeanor. The defendants argue — and the district court ruled — that the grounds for custodial arrest specified in § 853.6(i) apply not only to misdemeanors but also to infractions. We disagree. Consistent with decisions of the California Court of Appeal and the statute’s plain language, we hold that Penal Code § 853.5 provides the exclusive grounds for custodial arrest of a person arrested for an infraction. We therefore vacate the judgment in favor of the defendants on the plaintiffs state law false arrest claim and remand for further proceedings.

Background

In 2000, Erris Edgerly was standing by himself inside a playground at the Martin Luther King/Marcus Garvey Housing Cooperative in San Francisco, where he was not a resident. The playground was surrounded by a fence and had “No Trespassing” signs posted at every…